Lucrative online businesses in Nigeria that anyone can start (2024)

If you are not running an online business, then you are missing out. According to various researches that have been published, people are spending more time on the internet than anywhere else. That opens up a big opportunity to reach a lot of them with your business. In this article, we will look at the best online businesses in Nigeria that you can start and make money.

Advantages of online business

Assuming you are looking for a shop to rent anywhere in Nigeria. I am sure that you will be looking for a shop in a busy area. Either close to the road, bus stop or any place where a lot of people pass each day. Why? Because you want to expose your business to a lot of customers. The more people that see your business, the better.

For this same reason, online business is very important. The internet is currently the busiest place in the world. Busier than any market in the world. Billions of people around the world use the internet every day.  Starting an online business gives you access to so many customers than a business in the real world.

Another reason you should start online business is that it opens up big possibilities and gives you a bigger reach than regular business. You can be in Nigeria do business with people in the United States, Canada, Australia and anywhere around the world. That means bigger market and bigger potentials.

Online business is also cheaper to maintain. You can be in your bedroom and run your online business. All you need is a computer and connection to the internet. The startup cost is cheaper than regular business.

The internet gives you a level playing field. No one on the internet really care who you are, how connected you are, who your father is, how rich you are or where you come from. It is about what you have to offer. A lot of you reading this don’t even know me or my status but you find what I write useful, that is why you are here.

There are many more reasons!

Best online businesses in Nigeria to start and make money

Here is a list of online businesses in Nigeria that you can start today and make money. These online business ideas are the best out there.

1. Blogging

Without a doubt, blogging is top of the best online businesses to start in Nigeria. This online business is something anyone can do and make money.  Gradually, regular newspapers and magazines are fading out, they are being replaced by blogs. And on the internet, everyone has the ability to start up a blog, unlike starting up a regular newspaper or magazine that will involve lots of politics and expenses.

I cannot remember the last time I bought a newspaper or magazine. Whenever I need information, I get online, visit some blogs and get all I need! Easier and more convenient.

If you are well-informed about a particular topic and you have an interest in it, you can start a blog and make money. Blogging is all about information sharing. It could be politics, entertainment, news, gossip, business, sport, technology, reviews, food, health, insurance. Anything at all! Just share information that people are looking for.

Once you start having visitors on your blog, you can start making money with it from Google Adsense, Affiliate marketing, Product sales and more.

In the beginning, you may struggle because you are fresh, as long as you know what you are doing and keep growing your audience, you will be making over $1000 (over N350k) a month in a year or less.

Creating a blog is easy and it should not take you more than 20 minutes to create one. We advise you to create a self-hosted blog, that way you can customize it and be fully in control. It is very difficult to make big money from a free blog.

The domain name should cost you N4000 or below. Hosting your blog should cost you about N3000 or less a month. But is is always advisable to pay for a year upfront, that way it will be far cheaper than paying monthly. A year will cost about N27k.

You can follow our guide to create your blog now! Go here: How to create a blog in less than 20 minutes. Or you can click here to go straight to Hostgator and get started.

For more on how to succeed in blogging, read this: How to become a successful blogger and make money.

If you are looking for an online business in Nigeria that pays then blogging is the way to go.

2. Affiliate marketing

This is a very lucrative online business that people often overlook. Affiliate marketing is all about referring people to buy a product or service for a commission.

The good thing about affiliate marketing is that you do not need to have any product. Just recommend products of other people and get paid for your effort. You are given a link and you share that link to your audience.

I know it sounds so easy and less lucrative but let’s break it down. Let’s assume you recommend a product like a phone worth N80k. And your commission is 20% which is N16k. You share your links through your channels and at the end of a month, 1000 people purchase through your recommendation. That will be 80, 000 x 1000 = N80 million. Your commission will be 20% of N80 million which is N16 million! So in a month, you have made N16 million. If the commission was 10% you made N8, million. If it was 5% you made 4 million!

The Affiliate marketing market is worth billions of dollars but in Nigeria and Africa, it is not well explored.

To become a successful affiliate marketer, you will need to target a particular product or industry. Then create a niche blog about that product or industry and recommend their products. You can also create niche social media pages and push your affiliate marketing there.

There are many affiliate marketing networks that you can join and get products or services to promote. Some of them are Amazon Affiliate, Jumia Affiliate, Konga Affiliate, Commission Junction and more.

This is one of the best legitimate online businesses in Nigeria. For more details, read: How to make money through affiliate marketing

3. Freelancing

This is a very profitable online business that is not well keyed into in Nigeria. In the United States, Freelancers makes up 35% of its workforce and contribute over $1 trillion to the economy.

Freelancing is all about working from home. If you have any skills that is in demand, you can become a freelancer and make good money.

It is a very lucrative online business. On Ppwork alone, which is just one platform, Freelancers make over $1 billion every year! And you can be among!

This online business is very good for students and those who need part time business. You focus on it when you are free and make money on the side with your skill.

There are many skills that you can put out there as a freelancer. It could be writing, graphic design, typing, translation, desktop publishing, programming, video editing, social media skills and many more. People are looking for people like you to collaborate on projects.

You can find freelancing jobs on Upwork, Freelancer, Guru, Toptal, PeoplePerHour, 99 designs and many more.

You can read more here: how to make money as a freelancer online

This is one of the best online businesses in Nigeria for students.

4. Online bank sales agency

You can start an online bank sales agency and set yourself up to make good income. An online bank sales agency help banks recruit customers using the internet. Banks need new customers, if you can help them recruit new customers, they will pay you for it. Big names in Nigeria like Don Jazzy is doing this.

The leading platform to set up your agency is V. V is banking app that is owned by VFD Microfinance Bank. VFD Microfinance Bank is one of the biggest Microfinance banks in Nigeria. They are regulated by the Central Bank of Nigeria.

With V, you do not need any documents or paperwork to set up your online sales agency. It is very easy with few clicks.

First step is to download the app. You can click here to download for android phones or click here to download for iPhones. Once you download, install. Remember to use 4PEYE as your referral code. Follow the on screen instruction to fill out the form. Once you are done. Open the app, click on more then click on start your bank.

The next page will open in a browser. Follow the screen instruction to fill out the form and submit. Note that it may take up to 1 day to be approved. Once approved, login to your agency account. Copy the referral code, use it to recruit new customers. The more customers you recruit, the more money you make. It is advisable to add money to your account even as little as N2000. N2000 makes your account an active account. You can use the app to pay bills or use it as a bank!

Here is how much you can make:

• 5 people referred with a combined balance of ₦500, 000, will make you ₦30,000 a month
• 75 people referred with a combined balance of ₦2 million, will make you ₦50, 000 a month
• 100 people referred with a combined balance of ₦5 million, will make you ₦100, 000 a month
• 250 people referred with a combined balance of ₦7.5 million, will make you ₦150, 000 a month
• 1000 people referred with a combined balance of ₦25 million, will make you ₦500, 000 a month
• 2000 people referred with a combined balance of ₦100 million, will make you  ₦1 million a month

Download the app to begin and remember to use 4PEYE as your referral code.

5. Online Videos

Online Video business also known as Vblogging is a very lucrative business that anyone can venture into and make money. Have you been on YouTube recently? Am sure that you have. Either to watch the latest music video, some comedy skits, football highlight or something interesting. That is what Vblogging is all about.

You can make videos on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and other places but YouTube is the biggest market for online video business.  YouTube is the second most used website on the internet after Google! Yes, YouTube is used by people worldwide more than Facebook, more than Instagram, more than Twitter. YouTube is all about video sharing. Only videos.

If you have passions for videos, you can start creating them and uploading on YouTube. You can do a comedy skit, short movies, you can do talk shows, you can do football reviews/previews. There are so many things you can make videos about. DIY, life hacks, games, music,  entertainment, news, politics, tutorial, fashion. Very many.

Build your audience and you can start making money from it with Google AdSense, Affiliate marketing, sponsorship and much more.

For more reading, go to: How to make money on YouTube

If you are looking for online businesses in Nigeria that you can start with no money, then this is it! All you need is your phone to start making videos

6. Social media marketing

There are so many people on Social media. From YouTube to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Snapchat and the rest. People spend the best part of their days on these platforms.

Social media marketing help businesses leverage on the crowd of people on social media to drive leads. It has been proven that businesses who have good social marketing strategy, increase their sales by over 100%.

But there are very few social media marketers in Nigeria working with businesses. So many small businesses in Nigeria are not making use of social media to drive business leads.

You can become a social media marketer and fill the gap. You will make a lot of money helping businesses leverage on social media buzz.

To become a social media marketer, read our guide: How to become a social media marketer

7. Flip domains and websites

This online business has lots of potentials. But it requires patience and clear understanding of what you are doing. It is all about buying and reselling of domain names or websites.

It may sound very easy but it is very profitable if you understand the business.

Let’s assume you heard of bitcoin before it became viral. You went ahead and register a domain name like: bitcoin.com, bitcoin.org, bitcoin.net or any of the popular domain extension. By the time Bitcoin became viral, you would have sold it close to or over $1 million!

If you doubt that then read this, a guy called Chris Clark registered the domain name pizza.com in 1994 for $20. He sold it in 2008 for $2.6 million! That is almost a billion naira.

There are many examples. If you cannot hit high, you can hit medium sales or reasonably low sales.

You can buy existing domains with good prospect, keep them and resale. You can also build websites (blogs) run for a year and resale.

Or buy existing websites with huge potentials, develop it for 6 months and resale for 50 times how much you bought it.

Here are places you can flip domains and websites: Flippa, Sedo and more.

I recommend that you read: How to make money on Flippa

8. Start a mini web hosting business

A lot of businesses, organisations and individuals are looking to bring their products or ideas online. This is not official but almost half of the business and non business organizations in Nigeria do not have websites.

As the internet keep penetrating, a lot of them will want to get online. To build a website, everyone needs a web host. You can start a mini web hosting business and grab these businesses and organizations as customers.

You can even do outreach in your environment to sanitize businesses while they should have a website.

To start a mini web hosting business, you will need a very fast and reliable computer and rent a big server.

Read: How to start your own web hosting business

9. Online shop or drop shipping

You can start an online shop and make money. The richest man in the world today, Jeff Bezos has an online shop called Amazon. In Nigeria, the biggest online shops are Jumia and Konga.

If you have products that you sell, you can create an online shop, showcase your products and reach more people online. You can also source products from different people and sell them online.

If you do not have the money to buy products or run a warehouse, then you can try dropshipping. In dropshipping, all you have to do is create an online shop. Look for major suppliers of products that you want to sell, and copy their inventory. Display this product on your shop.

When people visit your online shop to buy, the order goes straight to the supplier, they ship the good and you get your money. You do not need to have the product!

Creating an online shop is easy with help of platforms like WooCommerce and Shopify.

You can read: How to create an online shop very easily with Shopify

10. Web Design

Many websites are created everyday. There are billions of websites on the internet and millions more are being added each month. In Nigeria, website creation is on the rise as more businesses and organizations look to tap into the power of the internet.

These businesses need web designers to help them build websites for their businesses.

To be a web designer, you need to have a knowledge of coding. You can learn programming online almost for free these days. Read: How to become a software developer. You also need to have a good understanding of the CMS that you are using.

Learn web designing, then create a website for your business and advertise it on social media. You will find customers.

If you are looking for online businesses in Nigeria with low investment then website design is one of them

11. Create digital goods

Digital goods are goods that are consumed mainly online. They include: E-book, Apps, Themes, downloadable software, logos and more.

They have the potential to make you rich. Take for example WhatsApp. It’s a digital goods. It was created by a group of friends to stay in touch. Then it went Viral and they sold it for $19 billion! That is Trillions of naira.

Instagram was sold for $1 billion. There are many other examples. Even if you don’t sell in billions, on Flippa every day, people are selling apps for thousands of dollars which is millions in Nigeria.

Digital goods like e-books can make you money if you have good ideas and marketing plan.

Creating digital goods is very lucrative. With billions of people online ready to consume.

If you are looking for online businesses in Nigeria that will make you rich, then creating digital good can get you there.

12. Teaching online course

So many people are looking to learn something online. Whether it is writing skills, web designs, business management, how to play instrument, how to cook. People are learning online more than ever before.

If you are very knowledgeable about a particular topic, you can create a course and sell it online. You can make over $20k for every course you create depending on how viral it becomes.

There are websites that help in creating and selling of courses. The two biggest are Udemy.com and Teachable.com

Read: how to make money creating and selling online course

Note: We will keep adding to and updating this list. Bookmark and check back in the future